Swings and Stars
by TheLateNightStoryteller
Summary: Set after the season 1 Finale. Skye and Fitz spend some time on the swings as Fitz is recovering. They are joined by Simmons later and Skye reflects how much she wants to keep them both safe.


This story takes place after the season 1 finale and is incredibly hypothetical because, of course, I have no idea what is going to happen to Fitz. Agents of Shield belongs to its good creators and ABC and Marvel.

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"When you can't walk, you crawl and when you can't crawl.. when you can't do that -"  
"You find someone to carry you."

- Tracey and Zoey, Firefly.

Skye sat on the swing beside Fitz trying to enjoy the cool night air. She couldn't however, because her friend was struggling to move his swing and becoming increasingly frustrated when it did not co-operate.

"I can't do it," Fitz lamented. His voice was low and defeated.

"It's ok," Skye assured him, rubbing his shoulder gently.

"It's not though," he said quietly. "I'm useless. I can't do my job I can't even... can't even...I can't...damn it..."

"Swing," Skye whispered because he was beginning to look panicked. His eyes were wide and his face was bright red.

"Yeah," he said shakily. He clenched and unclenched his good hand a few times before pressing it against his leg. "Poor Simmons has to do everything herself. I wish I could help her but the best I can do is give her instructions filled with mistakes." The end came out louder than the rest and his gaze darted quickly towards her before he returned to staring at his feet.

"It's enough for her that you're there with her." Skye told him firmly, wanting him to know how much her words were meant. "It's enough for all of us just to hear your voice again."

It was more than enough. Simmons had changed dramatically since he had awoken from the a shadow of herself, angry and mournful and grimly focused on any task set in front of her to something much closer to the Simmons Skye had grown to love. She was warmer and she smiled and bubbled on about science and life once more. And it wasn't only Simmons who had found a weight lifted off of her after his awakening. Everyone was more cheerful now that he was with them again and Skye was more relieved than she could ever remember being. She wanted to tell him all this, to make him understand how glad they were to have him back. But she didn't want to remind him of what had happened to him and she knew that it wouldn't take away the horrible frustration he must be feeling as he struggled to do things that had once, for him, been as simple as breathing.

"Simmons is not feeling sorry for herself," she said instead, "she is happier now than she was for a while and so am I."

Fitz smiled at Skye and squeezed her hand quickly but she could tell he was still feeling depressed.

"Why don't I push you?" She offered, trying to lighten his mood. "That's how we all start out anyway right? Do you think you can hang on?"

"I can try." he told her forcing another smile onto his face.

Carefully she pulled back his swing and let it fall forward. He creaked back and forth but his feet barely lifted off the ground.

"That's it?" he asked and she grinned at the light humor in his voice, "Skye c'mon I can fall, I'm not made of glass."

"Oh alright, you want to go higher?" She inquired teasingly, "I can do that." She wasn't going to let him fall but she pulled back the swing further and pushed him forward so that his feet dangled in the air for a few moments.

She saw him hold on tighter to the chain and he wobbled a bit however he managed to hang on long enough for the swing to creak back to her.

"A bit better," he joked, a true smile lighting his face and she wondered how anyone could ever bring themselves to hurt him. "but I thought you had more upper body strength than that. Haven't you been training with May?"

"I'm pushing you on the swing not punching out a bad guy," she laughed.

"Well maybe you need put just a bit more punching bad guys into it," he chuckled.

"What are you two doing?" Skye heard Simmons call, walking towards them from the entrance of the park. Skye's eyes lingered momentarily on the wound that covered the side of her face. She thought of Fitz and how long he'd had to go without oxygen and felt a ball of rage in the pit of her stomach. How dare anyone hurt them.

Fitz's face lit when he saw Simmons and her smile filled with warmth when their eyes met.

"Fitz thinks I need to do more push ups," Skye explained when Simmons stopped beside them.

"Just a few extra for me, you know, seeing as I can't do any at the moment." he kidded, indicating his injured arm.

"How about I do your push ups instead," she joined their joke, "I could use a few more anyway." She flexed her arms and the three of them laughed as Skye and Fitz shook their heads in mock dissapointment.

"It's a beautiful night," Skye commented after a minute, looking up at the stars.

"Yeah," "It is," they replied tilting their heads upward.

"There is so much beauty out there we can't even see from here," Simmons marveled, "like the red clouds of gas in the nebulas."

"That's where stars are born," Fitz explained to Skye. "They're red because radiation from nearby stars excites the electrons of the asterix... No, the... the..."

He swore and clenched and unclenched his hand again and his eyes grew bright.

"Hydrogen," Simmons said softly, kneeling down and wrapping both her hands around his.

"Yeah," he whispered, not meeting her eyes.

"It's OK," she told him firmly.

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"Fitz look at me," she demanded gently. She stared at him until his eyes lifted and locked onto hers. "It's OK," she repeated, "it's only a word. You're alright, you're here with us and you're safe. We can figure out the rest together."

He searched her face, his expression unreadable. Skye was silently wishing for his smile to return when she saw it slowly form on his face and in his eyes.

"OK," he agreed quietly.

Simmons smiled back and wrapped him up in her arms. He squeezed her tightly with his good arm before they both turned to Skye and reached out towards her, inviting her in.

She joined them around Fitz's swing and they held each other for what seemed like both a long time and not long enough. She wanted to keep them with her forever, this plucky little family she had found, and protect them from ever being hurt again.

She knew that that was impossible, that the world was too big and too strong and there was so much evil she could never fight it all off. But she could try. She would fight all the evil in the world to protect the wonderful goodness she had found in them.

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Fun Background

This story was originally going to be an added chapter to Swings, however that story is really suppose to be focused on the friendship between Fitz and Skye and Simmons plays a large part in this.

The Fringe reference is Fitz saying asterix instead of hydrogen. Walter never gets his friend Astrid's name right. He calls her many other things including Asterix.

It took me forever to write this because I kept getting distracted and writing happier stories instead because I live in an imaginary world of sunshine and rainbows.


End file.
